Francis Scott Fitzgerald Essay

695 words - 3 pages

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald is one of the most successful American authors from the early twentieth century. Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1896 in Minnesota. Fitzgerald is a descendant of the famous patriot Frances Scott Key who is known for writing the “Star Spangled Banner.” Fitzgerald’s life seemed to go up and down with the way of life he lived and the events that happened to him and the people around him. Although Fitzgerald today is most famous for The Great Gatsby, he was a man of many talents within his writing skills.
Fitzgerald’s childhood included him moving to upstate New York after his father, Edward failed as a manufacturer of wicker furniture in St. Paul. Edward then became a salesman for Procter & Gamble where is 1908 he was dismissed and the family moved back to St. Paul when his son was twelve. When the family moved back to St. Paul they lived comfortably on his mother’s, Mary’s (Mollie) inheritance. Mary’s inheritance came from her father who ...view middle of the document...

In June 1918 Fitzgerald was assigned to Camp Sheridan, near Montgomery, Alabama. While he was there he fell in love with the daughter of an Alabama Supreme Court judge named Zelda Sayre. Zelda and Fitzgerald fell in love very quickly, and had a rocky relationship throughout their lives. Fitzgerald wanted to marry Zelda, but was not becoming successful when he went to New York to get rich and marry Zelda. At this point due to the failure of Fitzgerald’s writing career and his small salary, Zelda decided to break off their engagement. Fitzgerald decided after that to return to St. Paul to rewrite his novel as The Side of Paradise. Editor Maxwell Perkins of Scribners accepted this novel in September of 1919.
Shortly after his novel was accepted he became what is known as a “post writer” and started writing stories for mass circulation in order to earn money in between writing novels. With the publication of This Side of Paradise in March 1920 Fitzgerald seemed to become famous overnight, and a week later he married Zelda Sayre in New York. The love story between both Zelda and Fitzgerald is not normal, but as a young couple lived a very extravagant lifestyle. While they were young Zelda became pregnant with their child, Frances Scott (Scottie) Fitzgerald, who was born in October 1921 in St. Paul. After Scottie was born the couple moved to Long Island in order to be closer to Broadway. Within that time Fitzgerald was unable to make money by any of his novels or screenplays, but wrote his way out of debt by writing short stories. During this time of his life he became an alcoholic where Fitzgerald and Zelda had a domestic rows, which were from Fitzgerald’s drinking.
In 1924 the Fitzgerald’s went to France. While they were in France Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby during the summer. During this time it was known that Zelda was involved with a French naval aviator. This point really showed whether they ever really loved each other as it seems Zelda was in the marriage for the money, fame, and fortune of Fitzgerald. During that winter while they were in Europe they went to Rome where Fitzgerald completed the editing on The Great Gatsby. Gatsby was published originally in Paris. Once The Great Gatsby was published it saw poor sales, but was praised for the technique and structure.
After the disappointing sales

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